DoCoMo : Japan's wireless tsunami : how one mobile telecom created a new market and became a global force

"Almost a quarter century after their core management principles put them in nearly unassailable positions of market dominance, Japanese firms like Toyota, Sony, and Honda are still the standards to which other corporations aspire. Today, Japan's NTT DoCoMo is on the verge of attaining equal stature. DoCoMo is the world's second - largest mobile phone operator and, with its I-mode system, the first to roll out real, viable third - generation applications like Internet - ready mobile phones. This quantum leap in technology will very soon change the way we all send and receive information, from e-mail, paging, and voice to graphic business applications and entertainment. But DoCoMo's success came not as a result of following the hard-and-fast models of its illustrious predecessors. In fact, it is much more a reflection of the ability of DoCoMo's management to carve out a creative niche within the confines of legendarily traditional Nippon Telephone and Telegraph. Beck (co-author, The Attention Economy) and Accenture senior consultant Wade examine the enormous risks that DoCoMo took in pursuing a "bleeding edge" technology which analysts thought was superfluous, and how their daring almost single - handedly brought an entire global market into existence. This extraordinary story and the simple, powerful management themes ingrained in it that will drive companies the world over to emulate DoCoMo as they did the previous giants of Japanese industry." "DoCoMo is the first dramatic success of the wireless age. Ahead of the West in technology, financials and market strength, DoCoMo is now bringing i-mode to Europe and North America. Will DoCoMo's mobile Internet (and the commerce it carries) dominate our business lives the way that Sony dominates our media rooms and Toyota our highways? DoCoMo's worldwide impact is compelling. But even greater drama is hidden inside. The real story is how DoCoMo created world-beating innovation inside a famously conservative parent, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph.". "Both DoCoMo's success and its innovation come from a surprising source. Talented employees, extraordinary leaders, eager customers . . . all mattered. But behind all these was an almost magical conglomeration of six factors not found in traditional case studies: Love and Strength, Impatience and Inequality, Fun and even Luck. These factors - feelings, really - drive DoCoMo's success."--BOOK JACKET. DoCoMo is the high-tech division of the staid and solid Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT). DoCoMo tells the dramatic tale of how this company-within-a-company made a quantum leap in high-speed wireless technology - and developed "I-mode," the first viable, internet-ready mobile phone system. The book provides a fascinating look at DoCoMo's "rebellion" within the highly-bureaucratic NTT - and how I-mode has changed the entire culture of younger-generation Japan.